LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1941, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Frosts in Masterion. A frost of 12 degrees was registered in Masterton yesterday, and one of 12.1 degrees this morning. Drug and Chemical Research. Mr Sullivan, Minister of Supply, re-, ferrod at Auckland yesterday to re-' search being undertaken for the production from medical plants and seaweed in New Zealand of certain drugs and chemicals previously obtained from abroad. Important medicinal plants were being propagated from imported seeds, and the possibility of using certain varieties of seaweed as a source of potash and of other products, such as carrageen and agar agar was being actively investigated. Dominion Commodities.

Owing to the upheaval in Europe, business houses in many parts of the world are seeking supplies of various commodities, said the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, in an interview at Auckland on Saturday. Inquiries have come from South Africa, America, Singapore, India and Palestine, and all that is possible is being done to meet the demand. Inquiries have been received for butter, cheese, meat, seeds, rugs, textiles, dried peas, tinned butter, apples, fertilisers, greenstone, souvenirs, jams, and canned fruits, among other things. “We have been able to establish contacts with New Zealand and overseas firms.” said the Minister, “but shipping is the difficulty at the moment. However, we are ready to take advantage of any improvement in the situation.” Aid to Farmers. “You have had some cunning politicians interpreting the • Government’s promises for you, but I can say that we have done the generous thing by the farming community, and if we had not come behind you as we did when restrictions were placed on the killing of sheep there would have been chaos in the industry,” said the Minister of I Marketing, Mr Barclay, referring at Dunedin on Saturday to criticism of the Government's actions during the meat crisis. Mr Barclay was meeting sheepowners of Otago in conference. “It is our policy to get behind any industry that might be struck down in the same way that the meat industry has been." ho said, "and it will cost the Government about £5,000,000 to do it -—£4,000,000 to hold nearly 100,000 tons of meat, mostly lambs, in the freezer and about £750,000 to can 350.000 tons of ewe mutton. That is how we are keeping our promises to the sheepfarmers.”